Muse – ‘Drones’ (2015)

The two prior albums to Drones saw Muse heavily experiment with their sound. The Resistance was a carefully constructed record, however the departure in sound did not bode well with some fans of Muse’s harder stuff.Follow-up album The 2nd Law was a mash of several different genres, ranging from soft piano ballads to brash dubstep. It generally missed the mark for me and left me longing for something more grounded and stripped back. Low and behold, Muse announced their next album, Drones, would concentrate on a three-piece and strip back the grandiose opera elements.

Drones is a good album. The first half is some of Muse’s best work to date. The production throughout the record is tight and the instrumentation is top notch. What really shines through are the bass lines and melodies which Chris certainly stepped up for this record. Matt provides some very catchy vocal melodies.

In my opinion, Reapers is Muse’s best track since Knights of Cydonia, but my favourite track has to be The Handler. As a huge fan of tracks such as Fury & Darkshines, I’ve wanted Muse to create a dark and moody track ever since. I love everything about The Handler – the main riff, chorus bass line, pounding drums and dark tone that persists throughout. I would have to say that Drones is now in my top 3 Muse albums.